Caveat Emptor

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Over at Error Statistics there is an interesting post reblogging a piece by Normal Deviate on the question of whether Bayesian inference is a religion? This is something that I have no opinion about whatsoever, even when taken within the rather measured and circumscribed terms in which Normal Deviate frames it. There is a link though to a fascinating Youtube interview with Dennis Lindley that gives you a lot of insight into one particular Bayesian mind.

Starting around 10:28 Lindley, talking of the time when he was HoD at UCL makes the following extraordinary admission: "...there were two members of the department who weren't playing the Bayesian line at all and I didn't think they were very good, so I went to the administration of University College and asked if there was any chance of being able to sack them?"

Well, I suppose that plotting to get rid of people that don't agree with you - let's leave aside the question of whether that is the reason you judge them to be no good - is perfectly coherent... Being quite untroubled in confessing it is, to my mind, quite chilling. Tenure, which we gave away without much of a fight, was invented for a reason.